Machine for treating hides



UNiTEn STaTEs PATENT @EErcE,

WILLIAM R. STOKE AND ALBERT \VEPBATT, OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS.

MACHINE FOR TREATING HlDES.

EPECZPICATIOIT forming part of Letters Patent No. 318,820, dated May 26, 1885.

(No model.)

I 0 (LZZ whom 716 may concern:

Be it known that we, WILLIAM R. STONE and ALBERT "W. Pnnr'r, of Salem, county of Essex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Machines for Treating Hides, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention has for its object the production of a machine adapted to unhair hides; and with a slight change of parts the same ma chine is adapted for cleaning the hide from the drench-liquor. In machines for unhairing and handling wet hides the operators, in placing the hides in the machine,are frequently seriously injured; but in the machine herein to be described the construction is such that there is no serious danger of accident to the operator. In our improved machine the hide to be unhaired, and in its usual state for such operation, has one end passed under the un hairing-blade, attached to a pivoted beam or crossbar, mounted, preferably, in adjustable bearings, and is led over a spreading or stretch ing table, and its end is then placed under a flexible loop attached to the hide-drawing roller, having an attached friction-clutch meehanism by which to rotate the said roller, and the roller is started, with the hide upon it, such action causing the balance of the hide to be drawn between the unhairing-blade and the stretching bed or table. The hide is then re moved from the roller and is turned end for end and again drawn through the machine, thus completi n g the unhairing operation. In all other machines the end of the hide to be drawn through the machine between the unhairing-blade and the table is secured to the pulling-roller by a clamp, under which the end of the hide has to be secured, with consideraable trouble and waste of time, and the operator is liable to be injured if the machine is prematurely started. In this our invention we have provided the drawing-roller with a flexible loop or chain under which the end of the hide may be quickly drawn as the roll is started, the operator holding the hide partially bent above the flexible loop until in the rotation of the roller the loop commences to draw upon the hide, and thereafter the friction of the loop on the hide on one side and of the roller on the other side draws the hide with the roller. By means of the loop the hide may be more quickly engaged with and so as to be moved by the roller than were a clamp employed, and the action of the loop on the hide so holds it, as we consider, more satisfactorily than were a metal rod or clamp employed.

Figure 1 is a frontvicw of a hide-treating machine embodying our invention; Fig. 2, a top or plan view; Fig. 3, a right-hand end view, and Fig. 4, a section in the line 000:, Fig. 1.

The frame-work A has suitable bearings for the reception of the roller B, provided with the flexible loop a, a rope, or string, cord, or a chain. The roller B has mounted loosely on it a toothed wheel, I), having a projecting flange, b, theinterior of which is engaged by the friction-faces of blocks b connected by links I)" with a collar, 6, splined on the shaft of roller B, the said collar being grooved to be embraced by a forked lever, c, joined by a suitable link, 0, with a treadle, 0, whereby the operator by his foot may efiect the engagement or disengagement of the clutch parts b b at will, according as he desires to rotate or to stop the rotation of the roller B. The blocks I) slide in slots of an arm, b secured to the shaft of the roller B. The loose gear is driven by the pinion (Z on the driv-er'shaft (1, having a belt-receiving pulley, d. The stretching bed or table 0, preferably of metal, has a series of teeth, 2 2, which diverge each way from the center of the bed in the direction of the movement of the hide over it, as best shown in Figs. 2 and 1, to thus stretch or spread out the hide, the said bed also being inclined upwardly in the direction of its width between the roller and the blade, to be described as indicated in Fig. 4. The frame-work at the rear side of the mechanism has grooved uprights 6, in which are placed plumber-boxes e, the said boxes being supported on springs c and being acted upon at their upper side by adj llS'fill'lg-SCIGWS 0*, whereby the said boxes may be adjusted vertically. The plumberboxes 6 receive the end journals of a beam or rocker, f, having a handle, f, by which to turn it in the direction of the-arrow 2, Fig.

4, to permit the hide it (shown in dotted lines) to be introduced under the unhairingblade composed of steel, and held adjustably by the screws a cap, 9, or binder, being introduced between the heads of the said screws and the beam. The beam has projecting arms f which come against adjusting devices m, (shown as screws,) held in uprights m of the frame, the adjustment of the said screws determining the angle of presentation of the edge of the blade 9 to the hide. The end of the hide caught under the flexible rope or cord at is firmly held, and as the roller is rotated the hide is moved on the roller and drawn through the machine.

The machine shown is provided with a strong strip of vulcanizedindia-rubbersnch as belting-and shown at p.

In one of the treatments of hides the liquor with which the hide is drenched has to be stripped or squeezed out. To do this, loosen the screws 9 and lift the blade 9 until the edge of the indiarubbcr strip is as low or lower than the blade 1, and thereafter the said indiarubber strip will act as the surface against which the surface of the hide will be drawn as it is pulled over the table 0 by the roller.

WVe do not claim a metal rod or clamp attached to a roller and serving to hold one end of a hide, as that is old.

1. Ina hide-treating machine, a bed or table combined with a drawing-roller provided with afiexiole loop with which to engage the end or edge of the hide to draw it across the bed or table, substantially as described.

2. The bed or table provided with the diagonally-placed teeth to shield the hide, 'and the roller having the attached flexible loop a, combined with the beam and its attached metal blade to operate substantially as described.

3. The bed or table and the drawing-roller provided with the flexible loop a, combined with the beam mounted in adjustable plumberboxes, and with the blade 9, attached to the said beam, substantially as described.

4. The bed or table and the drawing-roller having the flexible loop a, combined with the beam provided with a strip of india-rubber to work out the drench-liquor, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

IVILLIAM R. STONE. ALBERT XV. PRATT. 'Witnesses:

WILLIAM H. Fern, GEORGE L. STONE. 

